


The Distance to Get Closer

by Lurkete



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Hopeful Ending, Past Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer, Past Kara Danvers/Mon-El
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21882226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lurkete/pseuds/Lurkete
Summary: Season 3 canon divergence -Things are different for Kara after she returns from ArgoSecret Kalex Santa 2019,Hope this is okay Pengu.UnBeta'ed, sorry -_-
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Kara Danvers
Comments: 7
Kudos: 85
Collections: Secret Kalex Santa 2019





	The Distance to Get Closer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [immopengu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/immopengu/gifts).

**Heart’s most wanted**

_ Midvale, the early years _

The first time Kara understands that she is not meant to be Alex’s betrothal it’s been a year since she started living with the Danvers. She starts crying like crazy and doesn’t stop. 

It’s not that she wails or rages, she doesn’t even make a sound, just… there’s a lot of tears. It’s a true kind of sadness, resigned, verging on the depressed, and it lasts for days.

Alex takes to avoiding the weird, weeping alien that is apparently sad because they are not getting child-bride-married.

Jeremiah is concerned but thinks that it makes sense, “The girl lost her whole world, Liza, not just physically but culturally too,” he explains, “I think the difference in customs is probably a trigger and the reality of it all is finally catching up to her.” 

“Hmmm,” Eliza draws it out noncommittally. 

Jeremiah can almost hear the cogs in his wife's head pick up their pace. He kisses said head and continues to make an ungodly amount of pancakes.

“Are you _ sure _ you’re okay, squirt?” he throws towards Kara.

“I understand. I will be brave.” comes the solemn if weepy reply. The same reply she’s been giving them since the whole thing started. 

Jeremiah flips another pancake, and Eliza yells for Alex to come down to eat. 

The truth of the matter spills out (quite literally) when Eliza has Kara alone for her weekly checkups, Eliza starts taking her bodily measurements and Kara once again tears up like a broken faucet. 

Eliza, ever the scientist, concentrates and asking the _ right _questions and eventually gets Kara to explain in broken English the source of her woos: 

Kara is convinced that the Danvers plan to genetically modify her to be a human twin to Alex - after all, keeping her identity secret is paramount, she gets that - but Kara is still torn apart about the change, fearing that the alterations will make her lose herself.

“At least,” she adds, “if I must change; looking like Alex is nice. She is so beautiful.”

After a horrified minute Eliza takes a breath and summons a Danvers family meeting to try and unpack all of _ that _. 

They order 12 pizzas and 3 bags of potstickers and hunker down around Kara to really try and understand where all this is coming from.

It’s Alex that manages to put it together: There were no siblings on Krypton.

Couples were assigned either one offspring or none at all, overpopulation was a problem as it is. The only exception to this was identical twins - an _ extremely _rare occurrence (like Kara’s mother and aunt), and even then only heard of occurring in the high houses (no one wanted to think why the low houses never got twins). 

The idea of fraternal twins or regular siblings is such an anathema to Kara that she seems to simply not have a frame of reference to understand the word the way it is meant on Earth. 

In fact the only reason she knows the word for ‘Sisters’ in Kryptonian is because of her mother and aunt - a regular Kryptonian knowing the word for ‘sister’ would be equivalent to the average human knowing what the word ‘Modrige’ means.

Kara has not made any friends at school, and the loose acquaintances that she does don't have siblings (it just happened that way). It all boils down to the fact that, thus far, Kara never really had a chance to see what Earth-sisters _are_.

As the evening turns into night, the senior Danvers’ urge the girls to go to sleep, assuring Kara that her acceptance into the family would not require matrimony nor genetic alterations.

  
  


Kara lays awake that night and marvels at this new form of relationship, trying to wrap her still very-Kryptonian mind around it. 

Her mother and aunt were genetically the same - there is an undeniable connection there. But Alex isn’t even the same species as her.

She did grow up with other Kryptonian children in the house of El, the offspring of vassals and other auxiliary personnel beholden to the core members of the house, however she was not required to share space, resources, or time with them nor developed the intense emotional connection that seemed to be par for the course here on Earth. 

Earth families were intense. 

  
  


Time moves on, Kenny happens, Alex changes and so does she.

Kara’s relationship with Alex was established on a foundation without Earth-contexts. However, lately Kara feels that the Kryptonian notion of “chahvehd zhor-sem” or “heart’s most wanted” seems to fit the bill both for herself and for what Alex (and the rest of Earth society) think sisterhood should be. 

  
  


**Argo**

On the first day on Argo, Kara is very tense. Everything is perfect. Her mom's here, her culture. She sees the crest of her house used appropriately, sparingly, to symbolize the Els.

She waits for the other shoe to drop.

She speaks Kryptonian, her tongue tying on the words the first few days. she thinks she might have an accent. 

But after two weeks it all comes back, comes easy.

And she waits, bated breath, for the other shoe to drop.

Mon-El is so weird, more weird, more of a pod person. she wonder if they did something to him in the future, put him in a machine that tinkers with the synapses of the brain, a machine that turns criminals and assholes bland and complacent. Her mother loves him, she constantly gives her this look as if she approves. Kara smiles uneasily and waits for that damn shoe to drop.

"State your medical emergency," says the Krotox-style robot.

They were originally military robots but Kara guesses Argo doesn't have enough raw resources to recreate the gentle looking medic-bots. It looks like they just took the military versions and dumped healer personas into them. The experience is quite jarring.

"I haven't dreamt since I got here," says Kara.

"Here," says the bot as a compartment in its chest opens up to reveal a small soft cube, "ingest this an hour before your dinner and it will help you slumber."

"I don't have a problem falling asleep," Kara says a bit shortly.

"Oh? But you said th-"

"I can't dream!" Kara cuts him off.

"Dreams are not necessary for achieving rest lady Zor-El, please may I offer you a..."

"Nevermind," Kara growls, already halfway to the door.

Three nights later she sneaks out of a gala to sit on the roof of the venue. Her Mom and Mon-El are still inside, chatting, formal and polite. Proper.

Kara raises her eyes to the sky, looks for Earth, but Argo's dome makes everything look muted and smeared. She sighs. Her chest physically aches, just above her heart.

  
  


That night she dreams for the first time on a long while. She dreams of shackled hands reaching out for her, desperate; she dreams about evil entities dragging away the owner of those hands, of her own self reaching, reaching, but she's too far away and being dragged back, she dreams about a broken voice yelling "I need my sister!"

  
  


She goes back.

Everything is not perfect on Earth, the house of El crest is used crudely, it adorns cheap merch - but it is also used as a symbol of hope for all. She speaks English with an accent but it goes away quickly.

Alex is annoying and difficult and real, so real, so confusing - Kara wished she knew what to do with the ache that hurts just above her heart whenever they are close. 

  
  


**Alex, preparing**

The armory was a dangerous place for her to be right now. 

Alex’s hands are busy going over her gear, checking and re-checking, moving in a way so automated that it leaves her mind to wonder...

Kara had returned from Argo city quiet and weird. 

Alex doesn't like it.

Kara was the same externally, she treated everyone the same as before, talked the same way, goofed the same way, but there was just something different in the energy between them - specifically, Alex-and-Kara - that filled Alex’s heart with dread.

It took her all of yesterday to put a finger on it, to notice the minute way Kara’s eyes were guarded when she looked at her, the way Kara’s posture was a millimeter more rigid, a degree more pulled back. Subliminal - but there. 

But there.

Alex adds an anti-toxin kit to her military vest and starts going over the compounds she wants. She’ll need it for the upcoming mission. She needs to concentrate more on said mission instead of her Kara-Drama, if only her brain would cooperate...

_ It was bound to happen eventually. _

Who was she kidding? it was a miracle that Kara could stand her presence thus far. Obviously, being on Argo had finally put Kara back on the track. It was just a matter of time, really. Alex would have been almost relieved if her heart was not shattering into a million pieces. 

She dismantles and reassembles her pistol while imagining how the conversation on Argo probably went, how Kara inevitably told Alura that Astra, her sister, her _ twin _, was dead - murdered. 

Her military kit would stay in the backup vans, but it was still good to go over everything. Preparedness was one of the only edges that mundane people such as herself had when dealing with supers.

Maybe she could talk to Kara? Explain again, apologize, beg, they never did have that talk. 

_Unfinished business. _

I deed so heinous that it could kill love. Could kill Kara’s love for her. 

_...If there ever was any love in the first place? _

She laughs out load in the empty room, she’s being silly. 

_But no._ she quiets.

There’s always that sliver of doubt, ever since Red-K; that sneaking, poisonous thought that Kara was dependent on Alex for her services: for her support, for her protection, and companionship. 

And that the moment Kara finds something better, Alex would be obsolete. 

_ God _, she was pathetic.

She needed a drink.

Honestly though, _ really, _ if you think about it, who could ever love a cerebral nerd like Alex? 

Not even her mother did. Eliza was proud, yes, when Alex did something exceptional, but she never treated her with anything but disappointment in any other situation.

People loved Alex conditionally; and it was exhausting. 

Well, her dad loved her, once upon a time. 

But not enough to stick around, not enough to compromise his ideals, his need to protect Kara - and sure, that’s the most honorable thing a _ man _ can do, but it’s the stupidest thing a _ dad _can do. Dads should value themselves above honor and duty, they should be self-centered, or rather child-centered. Because if Alex's dad was a bit more of a coward, a bit less of a hero, he’d still be alive. 

She checks on her bulletproof evening dress. 

Alex has learned a lot from her dad’s mistakes: there are those who want to _ Win _ , and there are those who want to _ Succeed _, and she will always value being effective rather than being a hero.

The mission, _ Keep your head in the game, girl. _

Wonder Woman was in town for a climate-change convention, she was supposedly unveiling a type of toxin-digesting moss that grows on her secret little island. 

Word was that Dr. Pamela Isley, a.k.a Poison Ivy, was slated to make an appearance as well, and although the not-so-good doctor was technically on parole and thus allowed to be there, Wondy still requested some backup. Alex and her team were expected to dress up, mingle, and keep an eye out for hijinx. 

A night of booze and schmooze with the rich and unhinged. 

Alex adds an alcohol-dissolving pill to the pouch on her thigh and starts going over her coms gear. 

She remembers the exact moment she became an alcoholic. 

_College_. and she didn’t even drink alcohol until then.

At the time she was working on her Doctorate in bio-chem, trying to synthesize the thing in Kara that made her healthy, made her strong. 

She knew Kara got her powers from Sol’s particular light, so she figured Kara’s physiology was similar to that of a plant. If she could find a way to replicate it, she could help so many people. Make the world hurt that much less.

Turns out Kara was not a plant, Kara was a god.

And singular.

After delving deep into the thing that makes Kara’s cells tick she realized Kara was essentially immortal - as long as Sol would shine so would Kara, and Earth’s sun was there to stay for a good long while.

It was all so pointless, all her sacrifices, all her help, the things she gave, freely and joyfully - they ultimately didn’t matter. 

All wounds heal with enough time - Kal El’s abandonment, Kara’s social outcast status as a teen, all the hurt, all the pain, it would fade with time, Kara truly did not need her - even Krypton’s demise, would it really hurt after 1000 years? What about 10000, 50000? By then Kara would have long forgotten that Midvale had ever existed let alone Alex, she wouldn’t even be a vague sense of something missing.

_So what was the point?_

The greatest pain in the world is to love someone so much, to need someone so much, and to know that they did not need you the slightest bit in return, that anything you did could - at best - not cause them pain or annoyance, and at worst… well. anyways.

_Collage._ Alex was useless, so why stay sober?

Hank gave her a way to maybe keep up, to stay in Kara’s shadow that bit longer, not needed but at least in her orbit. 

She knew Kara would eventually shine. That she would eventually start the real Hero’s Journey of her life and Alex would be regulated to ‘back story’. 

The day Kara saved her plane was the saddest day of her life.

She knew that from that point on it was the beginning of the end, like Alzheimer's disease, creeping, debilitating, unavoidable. Kara would slowly forget her and Alex would be left helpless to see her slowly fade away into her godhood.

Maggie was a lifesaver, a way to jump-start her life into “regular people” path, she was almost thirty - she had, what? 45, 55 more year to live? Not accounting for accidents or other life shortening situations, and she didn't even know how to talk to adults who were not scientists or agents. 

It would probably seem like a complete spur of the moment decision to ask her to marry her, but honestly it was the smartest decision she’d ever make, were else would she find a beautiful, smart, understanding and fun person who could stand her? Maggie was like winning the lottery.

She just didn’t love-love her, and ultimately that wasn’t fair to Maggie. 

But a kid, a kid she would love for sure, a kid would _ love her back_, it was nature, it was like cheating. And Alex was selfish, Alex didn’t want to give up on the dream (far-fetched as it was) of a little human that would love her just for _ being,_ and not because she won an award or had a useful function.

_Blah_, her mind was all over the place. 

Alex inserts the militarized contact-lenses with the computerized HUD and starts working on her makeup.

**A Flirty Flower**

Kara is fuming, her hands are tightly crossed over her chest, her jaw is set, the briefing room’s harsh lighting somehow adding to her otherworldly beauty with some nice bounce light from the war table. How does she do it? Winn is always impressed.

“What’s up with Blondie?” a random agent stage-whispers at him.

Winn makes an “I don’t have a clue” gesture and continues watching Supergirl. 

Kara has been staring holes into J’onn’s back while he and _ freaking Wonder Woman _ talk quietly (yet animatedly) in the corner.

It must be something about the mission, right? Kara wasn’t grumpy before the mission, just the weirdly quiet and serious mood she’s been in ever since she returned from Argo.

Winn swivels his chair back to his console and accesses the data from a few hours ago. 

“Hmmm, let’s see.” He pulls up the video feed from the beginning of the night.

At the time, Kara and John were patrolling the airspace above the event, though Winn suspects Kara was paying closer attention to Alex. As usual. 

21:37 Wonder Woman, Alex, and a bunch of other agents - all decked out in the most tactical evening wear the D.E.O has to offer - enter the event in singles and pairs. 

22:46 The infamous Doctor Isley makes her appearance wearing an extremely tight green number, cherry-bomb red stilettos, and long green gloves that reach way above her elbows. Makeup - super on point.

23:02 Doctor Pam goes to the lounge to get herself a flute of champagne and settles on a bar stool to sip and watch the crowd. 

Winn isolates the image and manages to catch the exact moment Poison Ivy spots Alex sitting across the bar from her. She gets a seriously predatory look on her face, gets off the chair and makes her way towards the agent, all while swinging her hips in a confident manner befitting Jessica Rabbit. 

He remembers they all thought their cover was blown and, Kara especially, was moments from full on crashing through the ceiling in order to "rescue" the agent. 

But all Pamela did was sit next to Alex, put her gloved hand on the agent’s exposed thigh and flirt outrageously for the rest of the night.

Seriously, that’s all she did. 

At precisely midnight, Winn watches Wonder Woman come up to the podium to make her presentation and show off her moss. 

Alex and Pamela are standing in the crowd, Pamela has her arm resting snuggly in the crook of Alex’s elbow, whispering in the agent’s ear. Meanwhile Alex stands stiffly and beat red as she stares straight ahead at the presentation. 

The presentation ends, people leave, Alex _ tries _ to leave much to Pamela’s chagrin. She eventually succeeded but not before Poison Ivy gives her a rose and her number.

End of mission. 

No harm, no stolen moss. Just a bunch of confused agents and a smirky Wonder Woman.

“Good job, Agent,” Wonder Woman had said in her exotic accent later on in the briefing.

“What?” Alex had replied.

“A most effective tactic, Poison Ivy was completely distracted for the night.” She gave the Agent a good pat on the shoulder and got a weirdly appreciative look on her face. Winn thinks she might have even checked out Alex’s butt. 

“What?” Alex had said again.

That’s when Kara’s mood started to veer towards the grump.

At the time, Winn had managed to catch J’onn’s eye and saw that he too had witnessed Wondy’s roaming eyes, only J’onn seemed to be rather pleased?

Weird.

That was a few moments ago. 

Now Alex is talking quietly with a random agent, Wondy and J’onn are chatting, and Kara is one unhappy camper. 

Winn decides to snoop.

He covertly goes to get a cup of water from the water cooler next to where J’onn and Wonder Woman are chatting. 

“...really do have a beautiful city here, J'onn J'onzz.” Wonder Woman says.

“Indeed, why don’t you stay and look around,” J’onn replies. 

“Oh, I couldn’t, I’m actually very busy,” Diana answers.

“Nonsense, I’ll even assign one of my top agents to show you around.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, Agent Danvers, she took point on tonight’s operation.”

“Well, maybe I can stay a few days.” 

“Splendid.”

Wonder Woman walks off and Winn approaches J’onn. 

“Hey, Papa-bear, what… what just happened here?” he points his finger back and forth between J’onn and the retreating Amazon.

“Winn,” J’onn takes a deep breath, “In some cultures, it is actually acceptable and even celebrated when parents nudge their children towards..._ wiser _ romantic decisions.”

“What now? Wait, wait! You’re setting Alex up! You’re _ meddling, _” Winn says with a shit-eating grin.

“Shhhhh,” J’onn grabs his shoulder and walks him a bit further away from where Alex is obliviously standing. 

“Look, Winn, Alex has been mopping ever since Maggie.”

“True,” Winn agrees.

“And I just want to see my girl happy.” 

Winn gets misty eyed

“Diana is a good friend, and an Amazon...“

“No, I get it, I get it,” Winn stops him, “I’ll build them an itinerary for the most romantic spots in town.” Winn says.

“Good man, “ J’onn claps him on the shoulder, Smiles, and leaves.

Winn takes a deep breath and smiles to himself.

He chokes on said breath when he catches Kara now staring at _ him _.

Well shit.

  
  


**A chat with a bat**

There is a stillness to Gotham’s “Ad Olam” cemetery, especially at 4am. 

The sun won't rise for awhile yet; even the birds and crickets are asleep. The air is freezing - not quite snowing yet - but there is a silence that comes with the cold.

Kara looks at the headstone with sadness. She is floating a few inches above the concrete path that winds around the graves. The rows and rows of rectangular slabs are modest and fairly uniform, there are no mausoleums and definitely no statues in Gothem’s main Jewish graveyard,

“Huh” says a masculine yet surprisingly gentle voice. “My radar picked up a Kryptonian in the city but I figured it’d be your cousin coming to vent about his girl again.”

“Hey Bruce,” Kara smiles.

He had managed to mask his approach even with her super senses, yet she still somehow knew that it was him.

Kara continues to float, her cape slowly, slowly rustling in the wind. 

Batman has a unique quality to his presence that doesn’t detract from the subliminal energy that is required for a good brood. He’s there, but it somehow doesn’t intrude. Maybe Kara could use the company. 

“Clark said you’ve discovered an entire piece of Krypton floating in space, met your Mother again. Congratulations, Exciting stuff.”

“Yeah."

“And yet here you are.”

“Yeah.”

"On Earth."

"Yeah."

“In Gotham.”

“Yeah.”

“In the city’s main _ Jewish _ cemetery.” 

“Yeah.”

“In front of Lotty’s headstone.”

“You knew Lotty?” Kara turns to look at Bruce. He’s perched like some big cat on the stone wall separating the sections. Always a flare for the dramatic with the bats.

“She was one of my grandmother’s Bridge-buddies, they used to play every Tuesday. Good lady, donated millions to the urban school system. Highly eccentric.” Bruce says, “like all of my Savta’s friends.” 

Kara shouldn’t be surprised, Lotty was a notorious little lady, known equally for her wealth, her generosity, and her feisty personality. She should have figured that the infamous Lotty Weiskopf and the infamous Bruce Wayne would have crossed paths in the way the very rich do. 

“How did _ you _know her?” Bruce’s question snaps Kara out of her musings. 

“She was in National city one time, closing out a big donation to the National City Women's Shelters program. She got mugged.”

Kara softly lands, she walks the few steps to the grave and gently puts her hand on top of the tombstone.

“It was so funny, I got there just in time to see the finishing act: here was this Edna-Mode-looking little lady giving this poor mugger a piece of her mind. He looked so intimidated by this 4-foot-nothing old lady with a thick polish accent - all white coiffed hair, fur coat, huge red-rimmed shades, massive designer handbag with a pet weasel peeking from inside of it.”

Kara smiles at the memory.

“The guy actually apologized. She gave him her business card, a $50 bill, and told him that if he got accepted to a public college she’d pay his tuition and student expenses.”

Kara closes her eyes to try to stop a tear.

“I had never seen such a big burly guy turn into a sobbing grateful mess so fast. She then hugged him - he was twice her size, like literally twice - and, well, I let him go.”

“That’s quite a first encounter,” Bruce says.

“Yeah.” Kara agrees, “Right after he left, Lotty turned to me and informed me that we were going to the tea shop around the corner because I look interesting - and also because I looked like a could use a biscuit. And it’s true, I could always use a biscuit.”

“Sounds like Lotty,” Bruce half smiles.

“We stayed in touch, I… she… I really liked her. We talked that day, she… she understood things that nobody else did.”

“Like what?”

At this point they were both sitting on the bench right next to the grave.

“Lotty was a Holocaust survivor, she somehow survived the Theresienstadt, Warsaw, _ and _Majdanek camps, her story is crazy! In Majdanek the Nazi’s actually sent her entire block to the gas chambers but the gas ran out that day so her block was spared - when the trucks came the next morning to bring more Zyklon B, one of the drivers - a catholic, snuck her out.”

Kara is up again, pacing, Bruce sits quietly and listens.

“She was hidden in a monastery for 7 years, She was told by the Mother superior to never contact anyone outside the monastery, to not even tell anyone _ in _the monastery that she was a Jew, it was too dangerous.”

Kara sits again and grabs Bruce's forearm.

“She thought she was the last Jew, Bruce. Like she really, really believed that her entire people, her entire culture was wiped out. As far as she was concerned, she saw it with her own eyes,” she says, agitated and sad. 

“Can you imagine it? I mean can you wrap your head around the idea, this poor kid, thinking she’s the last of her kind.”

“Reminds me of someone else that I know,” Bruce says kindly.

Kara goes quiet for a long minute. “Yeah,” she finally says.

“She started writing everything she could remember, pages upon pages, trinkets, symbols with explanations, drawings about herself, about her town, about Judaism. So that she wouldn't forget. So that there would be evidence that they once existed.” Kara continues, “all in this super weird code in case someone finds them.” 

“I’ve seen her things, her daughter donated them to Gotham Library’s holocaust wing,” Batman says.

“Really?”

“Yes, the exhibit is very well done.“

“I’ll have to check it out.”

They sit in silence, the cold wind rustles the treetops and whistles between the graves.

“I didn’t collect things,“ Kara finally says.

“Everybody deals differently,” Batman replies. 

“It’s not that, it’s just.. I remember everything. All the time, every person I’ve ever met, every number, every date, Every sight, every smell. I don’t know if it’s the sun or if I was born that way. Also, I’m going to live a very long time.”

“You are a living memorial,” Bruce says.

“Yes,” Kara confirms, “also... I had Alex.”

Batman seems to go through his mental Rolodex, “Agent Danvers?”

“Yes, my sis... my person… My…. I wasn't alone,” Kara settles and they sit once more in silence.

“What about the Daxamite?” Batman asks.

“Haaa..." Kara trails miserably, "you know about him".

“Clark was complaining.”

“Yeah…” Kara puts her head in her hands. “It was a bad time, Alex was pulling away, and I guess… I felt like I needed something that was my own,” She finally says. 

“But why him?”

“It’s embarrassing.” 

“Try me, I promise I won’t Judge.”

“...It was the sex.”

“That good, huh?”

“No it was terrible, like, really awful.“ Kara huffs, “But after, he would fall asleep on top of me, and I could hug him, hug someone as tight as I wanted. It was the best part of my day. I felt… like… I don’t know,” she says, “But I needed that so much that everything else was worth it. I needed that to _ live,_” she says as she scratches the spot above her heart.

Kara shakes her head as she continues, “And then he came back, and he was different, better, like a complete pod person.”

“But?” Bruce nudges

“He was married.” 

“Whoo.” 

“Yeah,” Kara grouses, “and I could finally see what a terrible, terrible person he was when I actually had him.” 

Kara wipes her hands on her thighs.

“I… I can’t believe I slept with him when he was his old self, that I let him...into my body.“ 

Kara shudder.

“When I compared this new version of him, with the old one, I just… it was so confusing.”

“We all make mistakes, it’s part of being a human. Well, Kryptonian, in your case.”

“No, you’re right,” Kara says, “I’m… I’m _ so _human, I’ve been living on Earth longer than Krypton. Being back on Argo it really hammered that home, so to speak.” 

Kara is once again pacing, waving her hands. Bruce remains seated and quiet.

“I… needed that, for the longest time I refused to be anything but Kryptonian even when I wasn't really that anymore. I couldn't even imagine not wanting to be home, krypton-home.”

She turns to Batman looking him in the eye, but really, looking inside herself.

“Only when I was on Argo I could finally see that I’ve changed, that it wasn’t what I remembered, and wanting it and not wanting it, well… confusing.”

“Kind of like with Mon-El.”

“Yes.” Kara says, her tone surprised. 

“A lot of people need some distance to see the big picture. See the same experience from a different angle.” Bruce says, “It can be a painful experience, realizing you were wrong, or a fool - but change can be a good thing.”

“Change is an inevitable thing,” Kara replies.

“Not for all of us. Some of us are stuck in our paths no matter how many angles we use to peer at the world.”

Kara looks over at the man sitting next to her. One day, maybe, they'll talk about _that_.

Batman rises , picks up a pebble from the ground and puts both it and a red rose on the grave of Lotty Weiskopf.

“Where did you pull that out of?”

“Always be prepared.”

“And they say Kal is the boy-scout.”

Batman snorts, but then gets serious, he turns to her and she gets the sense that they are about to wrap things up.

“Lotty Weiskopf made her millions by building a security company, she was a master code breaker and code maker.” Bruce says, “I actually consulted her several times as the Batman.” 

Kara frowns, this is news to her.

“She married a Goy- a non Jew. He was the love of her life but they did not get married until relatively late in their lives. When I asked her about it one time she told me that it took a visit to Israel to feel like she could marry a Goy."

Batman looks pointedly at Supergirl and continues, “When she saw a country full of people speaking Hebrew, where Jewish holidays were the national holidays, where Jews could be Atheists because there was no pressure to maintain an identity - that’s when she finally let go of her mantle as _ The Sole Archivist of her Culture _ and could finally live and love as just Lotty.”

“Wow,” Kara says again.

“Sounds familiar?” Bruce asks.

“Wait… Argo.”

“You are released, Kara. you are no longer the last rememberer of your kind. Go forth, be happy.”

Kara snorts.

  
  


They say their goodbyes and and Kara flies off, suddenly missing Alex in such a visceral way that her hand flies to the spot above her heart where she feels the pain most acutely. 

A different angle to see the same experience Bruce said. Maybe that’s what’s missing, maybe that’s what’s making her return so confusing and uncomfortable. 

  
  
  


**The Date**

Alex and Diana are sitting on a rooftop restaurant in one of the more swanky places National city has to offer. Winn set it up and somehow got J’onn to approve the expenditure. 

Diana has been holding her hand and smiling at her with twinkling eyes the entire meal.

Alex has a suspicion. 

But before she can do anything the entire restaurant goes silent. Alex peers over Diana’s shoulder to see Supergirl decked in full costume floating inches above the floor in the center of the sitting area.

“Supergirl.” Diana says.

“Diana,” Supergirl replies, “Do you mind?”

Diana sighs, gets up and throws her napkin on her plate, “I wasn’t getting anywhere anyway,” she tells Kara as she walks away with a last wink at Alex.

“Supergirl?” Alex says. “Kara, what is going on?” she adds in a whisper. 

Kara sits down, takes the napkin from the plate and places it delicately on her lap.

“Apparently I needed some distance,” Kara says.

“What?” Alex is bewildered.

“Distance, I needed it.” 

“What for?” Alex asks, still very confused.

“To get closer.” Kara says as she places her hand over Alex’s and smiles at her. 

It’s a very twinkly Smile.   
  



End file.
